davey
Dormant account
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2010
- Location
- Coffs Harbour Australia
Hey Chayton our second blockbuster - or is it too depressing?
As a youngster on our farm at Weethalle in outback Australia in the 1960s we had no video games or television. Hang on a minute we had no electricity either!
"How did you survive Dad?" my kids often ask, with a mixture of pity and amazement in their voices.
"We made our own fun" I always answer, but lately I've been giving the question a bit more thought. The reason being that at lot of what happened in those days I had shifted to the side of the brain that I refuse to use.
You see my brother Michael is two years older than me and I know for sure that he made his own fun. The trouble being that I was his "Playstation!"
He had me test run suspect billy carts, pushbikes with no handle bars and had a huge laugh after legging me bare-back onto the old milking cow. Michael definitely wasn't bored.
One of his favourite modes of entertainment was to have me test the rusty rabbit traps that Dad had left lying around. I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and he was able to convince me that what he had in mind wasn't at all dangerous.
"Now to set the trap just put your foot on the spring and the jaws will open. You then just pull them apart with your fingers," he cunningly suggested.
It was at the "pulling apart with my fingers" part that I started to worry as I couldn't see the clip that kept the trap open.
"How do I set it?'', I yelled with desperation starting to take over my self control.
I looked up to see Michael running for his life, and through the laughter I heard him say something about the clip being broken. It was a this point I decided there was only one thing left to do.
"Mum!!!" I screamed as the jaws shut with 8 fingers jammed between them.
Luckily Mum had become quite astute at unlocking rabbit traps and it wasn't long before I was free. A couple of days bathing in salty water and my fingers were as good as new.
Now you would think I would have learned but it was only a year or so later that Michael showed me how to set off a rabbit trap using one's foot.
"You just put your foot accross both jaws and release slowly and they will gently close." Sounded simple enough but I was a little concerned because I was only wearing socks.
"Doesn't matter what you're wearing" he said. I learned about it last week in science class and its something to do with Newton's third law", he confindently assured me.
Well I certainly couldn't argue with science and promptly set off the trap. All went according to plan for a monent at least. When the jaws were almost closed I suddenly felt excruciating pain!
The jaws had managed to grip just a small amount of flesh on the bottom of my foot.
Mum again came to my rescue but this time I needed stitches and a couple of days in hospital.
"I didn't know he had flat feet", Michael insisted as the doctor was sewing up my wound.
That excuse didn't cut it with Mum and it wasn't long after we were shuffled off to boarding school....and that's another tragic story.
.
As a youngster on our farm at Weethalle in outback Australia in the 1960s we had no video games or television. Hang on a minute we had no electricity either!
"How did you survive Dad?" my kids often ask, with a mixture of pity and amazement in their voices.
"We made our own fun" I always answer, but lately I've been giving the question a bit more thought. The reason being that at lot of what happened in those days I had shifted to the side of the brain that I refuse to use.
You see my brother Michael is two years older than me and I know for sure that he made his own fun. The trouble being that I was his "Playstation!"
He had me test run suspect billy carts, pushbikes with no handle bars and had a huge laugh after legging me bare-back onto the old milking cow. Michael definitely wasn't bored.
One of his favourite modes of entertainment was to have me test the rusty rabbit traps that Dad had left lying around. I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and he was able to convince me that what he had in mind wasn't at all dangerous.
"Now to set the trap just put your foot on the spring and the jaws will open. You then just pull them apart with your fingers," he cunningly suggested.
It was at the "pulling apart with my fingers" part that I started to worry as I couldn't see the clip that kept the trap open.
"How do I set it?'', I yelled with desperation starting to take over my self control.
I looked up to see Michael running for his life, and through the laughter I heard him say something about the clip being broken. It was a this point I decided there was only one thing left to do.
"Mum!!!" I screamed as the jaws shut with 8 fingers jammed between them.
Luckily Mum had become quite astute at unlocking rabbit traps and it wasn't long before I was free. A couple of days bathing in salty water and my fingers were as good as new.
Now you would think I would have learned but it was only a year or so later that Michael showed me how to set off a rabbit trap using one's foot.
"You just put your foot accross both jaws and release slowly and they will gently close." Sounded simple enough but I was a little concerned because I was only wearing socks.
"Doesn't matter what you're wearing" he said. I learned about it last week in science class and its something to do with Newton's third law", he confindently assured me.
Well I certainly couldn't argue with science and promptly set off the trap. All went according to plan for a monent at least. When the jaws were almost closed I suddenly felt excruciating pain!
The jaws had managed to grip just a small amount of flesh on the bottom of my foot.
Mum again came to my rescue but this time I needed stitches and a couple of days in hospital.
"I didn't know he had flat feet", Michael insisted as the doctor was sewing up my wound.
That excuse didn't cut it with Mum and it wasn't long after we were shuffled off to boarding school....and that's another tragic story.
.
